PM's boats compromise offers a way to ditch tow-back policy

Michael Bachelard, David Wroe

Prime Minister Tony Abbott has conspicuously softened his tone towards Indonesia after talks with the nation's President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, possibly paving the way to ditch his controversial boats turn-back policy.

The talks appear to have moved the two countries - which have been at loggerheads over the Coalition's asylum-seeker policies - towards a deal in which Canberra agrees not to act unilaterally and Jakarta takes a firmer stance on dismantling people-smuggling operations.

Asked repeatedly whether his signature policy of turning asylum seeker boats back to Indonesia would ever be put into practice, Mr Abbott demurred and said only that he was confident of stopping the flow of boats with Indonesia's help.

Mr Abbott also appeared to waver on other parts of his contentious policy, saying village spies and buy-backs of fishing boats were nothing more than a pot of money available to local Indonesian officials ''working co-operatively with their Australian counterparts to ensure, as far as we can, we've got people working with us rather than against us''.

Under the agreement, the two countries will work together outside the multilateral Bali Process. Immigration Minister Scott Morrison and his Indonesian opposite Djoko Suyanto will meet in coming weeks to hammer out details.

"In the end that's all that really counts: have we stopped the boats?" : Prime Minister Tony Abbott. Photo: Getty Images

Labor has leapt on the apparent backdown, with opposition immigration spokesman Tony Burke on Wednesday arguing that Mr Abbott could not have it both ways, because his pledge to turn around asylum seeker boats and buy fishing vessels had offended Indonesia.

''Those issues have been made patently clear that they consider them breaches of their sovereignty,'' Mr Burke told ABC Radio on Wednesday.

It was a ''no-brainer'' that the Coalition's plan to buy Indonesian fishing vessels in a bid to disrupt people smuggling operations was never going to happen, he added.

Mr Burke said the policy had simply offended Indonesia and been viewed as stupid back home, and Mr Abbott now needed to level with the Australian people.

''He just needs to come clean and acknowledge it's an election commitment that he doesn't intend to keep,'' Mr Burke said.

Parliamentary secretary to the Prime Minister Josh Frydenberg told Fairfax Media on Wednesday that Mr Abbott had "confronted his critics" on his Indonesian trip and proven he was capable of being an international statesman.

Mr Frydenberg declined to say what compromises, if any, Mr Abbott would make on the Coalition's harsh asylum seeker policies, given the Prime Minister's recent softer rhetoric.

"I think we'll absolutely stick to our policies before the last election, which included turning back the boats," Mr Frydenberg said.

"We will work very closely with Indonesia to ensure that they don't misunderstand our policy."

Dave McRae, a research fellow at the Lowy Institute, said the talks had paved the way for Mr Abbott to quietly ditch his controversial turn-back policy.

''It was clear even going into the talks that neither side wanted a prolonged row over this issue,'' Dr McRae said. ''Then you had from both sides an acknowledgement in the press statement that [the boats turn-back policy] was something to be deferred to the ministerial level.

''I think that provides the opportunity . . . for the Abbott government to find a way to quietly drop the policy.

''One way they could do that, for instance, would be to appoint a panel who might set very stringent requirements for when towbacks would occur, which would effectively mean they would never happen.''

Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa said on Sunday that boat turn-backs were an issue to be ''discussed at a technical level''.

Dr McRae said this gave the Abbott government the chance to ''come up with a technical reason as to why tow backs would in fact not occur in practice''.

Mr Abbott's apparent concessions to Indonesian sensitivities come after Dr Yudhoyono said on Monday that Indonesia must negotiate directly with Australia on the boats issue, not just through the Bali Process.